BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Tourism leaders in Bryan and College Station say this summer’s estimated $69 million economic impact came down to a combination of factors — top-tier venues, a strong partnership with Texas A&M, and a state grant program that helped bring some of the biggest events to town.
At Monday’s Intergovernmental Committee meeting, officials with Visit College Station and Destination Bryan detailed how those pieces worked together, as part of a broader summer that included 26 tourism events, more than 42,000 hotel room nights and nearly 365,000 visitors.
Venues and a Texas A&M partnership come first
Jeremiah Cook, Assistant Director of Tourism for the City of College Station, said the region’s ability to land major events starts with its facilities — and Texas A&M’s willingness to open them up.
“It’s really huge, and can’t overstate Texas A&M’s role in this — that they helped bring those events here. It is their facilities that they were opening up for them. They initiated a lot of those conversations,” Cook said. “A city our size does not have that caliber of venues, if anything else other than Texas A&M… That caliber of venues and the ability to be able to get here and the offering that we have here is what drives those kinds of events to College Station.”
In Bryan, John Friebele, Executive Director of Destination Bryan, said the same holds true for events choosing the Legends Event Center.
“These Adidas sponsored or Puma sponsored events, they have the choice to go anywhere in the country, and they’re choosing to come to Bryan College Station because the experience that our facility and our community provides — it makes it easy to want to be here,” Friebele said.
Where the Texas Event Trust Fund fits in
Alongside those venues and partnerships, officials point to the Texas Event Trust Fund as one additional tool helping close the deal on some events. The state grant program reimburses cities for costs tied to hosting qualifying events, funded through incremental tax revenue the state expects to collect because of the event.
“It’s a great tool for us to be able to utilize,” Friebele said.
To qualify, an event must be selected by what’s called a site selection organization, competing against bids from other communities around the country, and generally show a pattern of rotating between regions outside Texas.
Five events in Bryan and College Station qualified for Texas Event Trust Fund reimbursement in 2026, bringing in a combined $1,000,372 in state dollars:
NXTPro / PUMA National Championships (July 16-19, Legends Event Center, Bryan) — $363,907Adidas 3SSB – Boys (July 8-12, Legends Event Center, Bryan) — $214,784Athletes Unlimited Softball League Championship (July 23-26, Davis Diamond, Texas A&M) — $145,862USATF Lone Star Grand Prix (June 6, E.B. Cushing Memorial Stadium, Texas A&M) — $139,039Adidas 3SSB – Girls LIVE (April 17-19, Legends Event Center, Bryan) — $136,780
Combined, the five events drew nearly 19,800 attendees.
Why it matters locally
Officials said the timing matters as much as the tools. Cook said tourism dollars help fill a gap left when Texas A&M’s roughly 70,000 students leave town for the summer.
“The main thing about tourism is that it keeps people at work here in our community. And so, we love visitors coming in and spending money and enjoying it,” Cook said. “But at the end of the day, it’s our neighbors that get to go to work. It’s our neighbors that get to keep that job at a hotel or in one of our restaurants or retail.”
Cook and Friebele said revenue this summer didn’t quite match 2024 — a year boosted by a George Strait concert and a record-setting Brazil-Mexico soccer match, the largest MexTour crowd in Texas history. But Cook said visitation numbers told a different story this year.
“We know that hotels did not get to that 2024 number, but we did see some visitation numbers that could have eclipsed that,” Cook said. “It’s not just about hotels. It’s about the people that are coming in for a day trip. They’re still spending money in our community.”
What’s next
Friebele said Bryan alone is already preparing six potential Texas Event Trust Fund applications for 2027, with College Station expected to pursue similar opportunities.
He also mentioned that Adidas is looking to bring two new events to town in 2027.
“It really does cross city lines, and what’s good for one ends up being good for the other,” Friebele said.
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